"This is most definitely not the new caipirinha," I think as I take a sip of my first terremoto cocktail in downtown Santiago. A mix of sweet fermented wine, pineapple ice-cream and fernet (a herb-infused spirit that tastes a little like dentist's mouthwash), it defies all sense and, within not much time, all sobriety.

The terremoto – meaning earthquake – is the house speciality at La Piojera, an infamous downtown drinking den in Santiago. The theory is the drink earned its name after being concocted from the few ingredients that remained after the big 1960 quake or, more simply, because one too many will make your legs tremble. I'm here just a couple of months after February's devastating 8.8 tremor and surely it's too soon to order a terremoto, I think to myself. Then I notice almost every single local patron is clutching a plastic pint glass filled with the stuff. In Santiago, 300km north of the epicentre, life goes on. Although the capital was nowhere near as badly hit as the second city, Concepción, I find the clean-up is, nonetheless, remarkable. A visitor arriving today is likely to note just a few telltale cracks and some extra scaffolding.

The city's comeback (at least on surface level) has positioned Santiago at the forefront of the campaign to call for tourists to return. This is not the easiest of tasks. Even before the disaster, the capital had some hurdles to jump in attracting visitors. Though fantastically located – just one hour from the coast, under two hours from ski slopes and just 30 minutes from vineyards – the city is generally regarded as a quick stop-off on the way to somewhere else. It also has a reputation for being, well, a bit boring.

Tellingly, until recently, there was no outstanding boutique hotel flying the flag for it as a destination for an aspirational city break. This changed with the opening of The Aubrey, a £2m project that has transformed two rundown 1920s mansions into the city's hottest property, at the foot of Cerro San Cristóbal, the city's second-highest peak. The British/Australian owners have spent three years restoring the mission-style buildings, retaining art-deco wood panelling and creating a stylish, hybrid interior that mixes Tom Dixon lamps with 17th-century oil paintings.

The Aubrey also looks set to be a major catalyst in the transformation of the tiny Bella Vista neighbourhood. With its colourful houses, street cafes and lively nightlife, the area is best-known as a hangout for students and a stop-off for those visiting the city pad of the poet Pablo Neruda, which is kept shipshape (literally), just as he and his third wife left it. Although the barrio prides itself on Patio Bellavista (patiobellavista.cl), a sleek bohemian complex with a sushi bars and a rock-themed restaurant, its real character can be seen in a traditional cité (rows of houses that extend down narrow alleyways) or with an unpretentious dinner somewhere like El Caramaño (Purísima 257, caramono.tripod.com), a former speakeasy serving Chileno classics such as pastel de jaibas (crab casserole) and machas a la parmesana (razor clam gratin).

Santiago is often thought of as lacking the passion and spark of other Latin capitals. I start to wonder if this is, in part, due to many tourists basing themselves uptown, where the gleaming skyscrapers, wide streets, American chainstores and guys dressed in chinos can make it feel slightly sterile. In a bid to prove that downtown is where it's at, I sign up for a walking tour with La Bicicleta Verde. It's designed to take in the city's "B side" attractions, which is what, in turn, leads me to the terremotos of La Piojera (Aillavilú 1030, lapiojera.cl).

La Bicicleta Verde's itinerary has a firm focus on food and drink. Starting in the Patronato neighbourhood, home to many of the city's Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants, we try "the best seafood empanadas in the city", before moving on to explore the sprawling La Vega market, where the air is permeated with the smell of fresh coriander and the avocados are the size of mangos. Next we head to the not-to-be-missed Mercado Central. The food court here is a fantastic place for an informal lunch, featuring all manner of barely recognisable sea critters, from spiky sea urchins to conger eel.

Mercado Central, Santiago, Chile. Photograph: Alamy

Finally, before winding up at La Piojera, our second-to-last stop is at one of the city's infamous cafés con piernas. A "cafe with legs" basically involves scantily-dressed barmaids serving coffee on an ogle-but-don't-touch basis. The story goes that, seeing as there was no real coffee culture in Chile in the 1950s, they had to add an extra incentive to get workers to make a coffee break part of their day.

I'm too curious not to take a peek, so I pluck up the courage to step behind the seedy neon sign and blacked-out window of Café Romeo (21 de Mayo 580). I find myself in small, dark room resembling a downmarket nightclub. The lunchtime rush is over and we're the only ones here: just me, my guide and six half-naked women. So I down my ultra-sweet cortado and head back into the light of day.

"The restaurant scene here is booming," says Liz Caskey, a long-term American expat who runs culinary tours of the city and has written a guide to the local scene (eatwineguides.com). "It is now more sophisticated and more diverse than ever in its offerings. Whereas in the past people only saw restaurants for special occasions or quick lunches, dining out in itself is now an event."

One place, with a current waiting list of more than a week, is Pasta e Vino. Originally a popular modern bistro in Valparaíso, a hip coastal spot two hours west, the owner/chef branched out into the capital after the opening of The Aubrey. The new outlet sits within the hotel's premises and serves up dishes such as pillows of squid-ink ravioli filled with salmon and slathered in a curry and cashew sauce.

Outside Bella Vista, Liz also tips Bellas Artes/Lastarria as another up-and-coming district. Here you'll find secondhand bookshops and antiques shops alongside Vietnamese restaurants and an ice-cream parlour, serving flavours such as chocolate-basil and green tea with mango (Emporio la Rosa, Merced 291). Hipsters should also make a pitstop at The Clinic (Monjitas 578), a new Chilean-style gastro pub named after a satirical newspaper.

To my delight, everywhere I visit on this trip is within walking distance of my Bella Vista base. Downtown Santiago has been easy to get to know and enjoy. It may remain one of South America's most conservative cities, but it is not without its quirks and is definitely not out of bounds post-earthquake. As Pablo Moll Vargas, general manager of Turismo Chile, said at a recent conference: "This earthquake got one of our knees on the floor, but not both."

• Iberia offer return flights from London to Santiago from £550 return (iberia.com). Rooms at The Aubrey cost from £161 a night (+56 2 940 2800, theaubrey.com). Meridiano Sur Petit Hotel, Sta. Beatriz 256, Providencia, is a seven-room hotel in the heart of the city with doubles from £65 a night (+56 2 235 3659, meridianosur.cl). A main meal at Pasta e Vino costs around £12 (+56 2 940 2830, pastaevinoristorante.cl). La Bicicleta Verde's Santiago Huachaca walking tour costs £40. They also do walking and bicycle tours that cover the city's political and cultural history (+56 2 570 9338, labicicletaverde.com)